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Archive for November 6th, 2017

Its frequently mentioned in this column that during the first eighteen years of Nikes existence, co-founder Phil Knight spent nearly every evening worried the next day would be the companys last. While he passionately believed in Nike, capital sources didnt always share his passion.
What’s important is that Knight’s memories of Nikes past struggles are hardly unique. Any successful entrepreneur will almost certainly have numerous stories of lean times that almost led to the dreams early end. Such is life for the doers in the U.S. without whom wed be a rather…

Internet radio service Pandora has been bleeding users for multiple quarters. New CEO Roger Lynch wants to turn that trend around. The startling indifference of teens to the service, however, could sink that effort.

Only those who follow politics closely pay much attention when Congress passes a budget resolutionâthe budget blueprint both chambers agree to that guides the appropriations process.Â But everyone should take note of the budget resolution agreed to by Congress on October 26, not only because it includes language to expedite Republicansâ tax reform proposals, but also because the resolution itself contains bad news for many Americans.Â If you have a high income and are wealthy, you stand to win at lot, if you are poor or have modest income, you stand to lose a lot, and if you are old,…

Chip maker Broadcom Ltd made an unsolicited $103 billion bid for Qualcomm Inc on Monday, setting the stage for a major takeover battle as it looks to dominate the fast-growing market for semiconductors used in mobile phones.

Here at Forward Partners we are going through a process of rethinking our values. We have historically had seven, but found that was too many to consistently remember and action, so we recently consolidated it down to four:

We execute with skill and pace

We get better every time

We play the game differently

We enjoy the journey

The next step in our process is to flesh out what these mean in a bit more detail. I’ve been thinking about our ‘skill and pace’ value in particular. This is one that was part of the seven, so we’ve had it for a while. We adopted the value originally because we were having problems balancing speed and quality. We were getting conflict between team members who wanted to move fast and those who were concerned that we were compromising too much on quality. Most often this was when we were deciding whether to release products or launch services when bug testing had been done, but not done to death, and before the full suite of unit tests had been written. We realised that we didn’t have a language to discuss the trade-off between speed and quality and so introduced the ‘skill and pace’ value so we could repeatedly ask ourselves if we had the balance right.

As I’ve been mulling over it some more it’s becoming clear to me that another aspect of executing with skill and pace is being comfortable with both the big picture and the detail. The big picture gives you ambition, the need to move quickly and ensures you are on a worthwhile path. The detail is key to hitting your short-term goals and is what enables you to move at speed.

Conversely, people who prefer to live only in the big picture can be insufficiently practical and people who are only comfortable in the detail can find it hard to see past short-term obstacles.

Communications chipmaker Broadcom Ltd on Monday said it offered to buy smartphone chip supplier Qualcomm Inc for $70 per share or $103 billion in cash and stock, in what would be the biggest technology acquisition ever.

It will be Powells Fed.
Assuming hes confirmed by the Senate, Jerome (Jay) Powell will become the 16th chairman of the Federal Reserve Board early next year. Almost by definition, he instantly becomes the most important economic policymaker in the world. But who is he? Outside economic circles, hardly anyone knows.
So lets catch up.
Powell would be the first non-economist to head the Fed since the disastrous appointment of G. William Miller by President Jimmy Carter in 1978. But parallels are strained. Even many economists dont believe academic credentials are…